Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester, a voting member this year, stated on Monday that to prevent high inflation from becoming entrenched, the Federal Reserve should consider making smaller, more frequent adjustments to interest rates rather than waiting for pressures to accumulate before taking large actions. She noted that U.S. inflationary pressures have spread beyond energy, with rising tariffs and demand for AI infrastructure also pushing up costs, thus necessitating the maintenance of restrictive monetary policy. Mester emphasized that explaining the policy reaction function does not equate to committing to an interest rate path.